


Miraculous Secret Santa

by LilLovelyanime



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Explosions, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Lila Rossi Lies, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-30
Updated: 2020-01-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:35:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22471165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilLovelyanime/pseuds/LilLovelyanime
Summary: When Marinette's class decides to have a gift exchange, things take a turn for the worst when a certain green eye brunette gets up to her usual tricks.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Lila Rossi, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 7
Kudos: 194





	Miraculous Secret Santa

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Miraculous Ladybug. I write this fic to practice writing and for my own amusement. I do not make a profit off of it.
> 
> This is the fic I wrote for Xycopathic, for "the Christmas 2019 Secret Santa". Originally I posted it on ff.net and decided to post it here. So I hope you enjoy.

"I'm finally finished!" The young bluenette shouts as she throws her hands up in the air, with a noticeable light blue cloth clenched in her hand.

"Finished with what Marinette," a feminine voice chirps out, coming from a small crimson creature with a big head, tiny body, two antennae, a large black spot on her forehead and back, short tail and big blue eyes.

"With my christmas present for Adrien!" Marinette delightfully replies as she spins around in her swivel chair with a beaming smile. "It took forever to make them just right! And feel them, aren't they super soft! And look Tikki, I also used this blue color so that it would match the scarf I made him for his birthday!"

Reaching out with one of her red appendages, Tikki felt the soft material and innocently asks, "Thats great! So when are you going to give it to him?"

A moment of silence passes between the kwami and teen, but is broken as the Marinette stififly turns away, refusing to meet her partners eyes.

"You are going to give it to him yourself, aren't you?" Tikki asks.

With her back still turned Marinette whispers, "I don't know... I mean Adrien and Kagami have become so close lately. What if I give it to him and things get weird?"

"Oh Marinette," Tikki softly murmurs in reply, "it's your choice as to whether you give it to him or not. I just want you to remember that even if the two of them have been hanging out, that doesn't mean they're dating and there's no harm in letting others know your feelings towards them. Also isn't it pretty common for people to give gifts to their friends on christmas."

"That's... " A moment of silence passes between them and then Marrinette spins around to face Tikki with a beaming smile, "you're right Tikki! Giving gifts to your friends is a natural thing to do for christmas! It's not weird at all!"

"If you're only giving Adrien a gift out of friendship, does that mean you're giving up on him?"

"What!? Of course not!" Marinette exclaims in shock, "I just didn't want things to be too weird between us, you know! There's no way I'm giving up on Adrien! It doesn't matter who stands in my way, whether its Chloe or Kagami!"

* * *

Feet pounding on the pavement, Marinette breathes heavily as she makes a mad dash for school.

"I can't believe how late I am! Where did the time go?!"

"Well, you where working on Adrien's christmas gift," Tikki helpfully answers as she peaks out from the young blunettes purse.

"I know, I know!"

"I mean you still have time before christmas," the kwami mentions, "you didn't have to finish it today."

"I know..." Marinette softly whines between each gasping breath, "but I wanted to give it to him before christmas break! Lately his father and in extension his assistant, Nathalie, has been really strict on people sending him gifts. If I don't give it to him during school, then I'll have to hang around his fencing school or one of his photo shoots to get a chance at giving it to him."

"Oh wow Marinette! I'm so proud of you, so you really are planning on giving him the gift you made personally?!" Tikki says in surprise, "for a moment I thought you where going to put it in his locker to find or something."

"What!? Of course not! Why are you so shocked? I've given Adrien gifts before!"

"Sure you've given him gifts, but most of the time he doesn't even realize they're from you." Tikki explains, "the scarf you made him for his birthday, he thinks his father gave it to him. The beret you made, as Ladybug you told him it was from his fans. Though, you did give him that lucky charm that one time."

Groaning a bit, Marinette resists the urge to shush the kwami as the school comes into view. Reaching down to close her purse, she puts on a burst of speed and runs into the school building. Luckily there are no teachers in sight to scold her for running and she quickly makes her way to her classroom.

Almost there she mutters under her breath as runs into the room. But as she crosses the threshold her foot hits the floor at a wierd angle and for a moment she loses her balance. Waving her hands in the air, in an attempt to regain her balance, Marinette trips and tumbles to the floor. A moment of silence passes before the room is filled with laughter. A few voices call out in concern but they are drown out by the snickers of the other teens.

"You alright?" A voice calls out above Marinette's motionless form, "does anything hurt?"

"Just my pride," Marinette sulk's as she sits up and takes the hand offered to her. With a wink of her hazel eyes Alya Cesaire, Marinette's best friend, pulls her up. Leaning towards her, Alya whispers, "so what happened? Why are so late?"

"Has Miss Bustier already taken roll?" She asks.

"Nah, you got lucky!" Alya whispers, "she's running late too."

Relieved to hear this, Marinette lets out a sigh, "that's weird but thank goodness."

"Yeah," Alya agrees and asks, "so, why where you so late?"

"Well..." Marinette begins to explains, wanting to tell her friend about the gift for Adrien she had just finished making. But before she can even mention it, much less go into detail, a feminine voice calls out. "Sorry I'm late, I had a few things I needed to take care of."

Turning to the voice Marinette observes Miss Bustier entering the room as she tries to balance a mess of papers and a box.

"Now, if everyone will please take their seats."

Seeing that she wont have the chance to tell Alya about the gift she whispers, "later" and the two girls head for their seats. Even though the two of them sit next to each other, Marinette doesn't want to risk being caught talking to her neighbor and getting detention or worse having to change her seat.

"So, before we start class," Miss Bustier starts to say as she loses her grip on the objects in her hands and they scatter on her desk. Picking up some of the papers that have fallen off the desk she continues, "I've been thinking that with the holidays approaching, it might be fun to have a gift exchange."

The sudden reveal of a gift exchange causes the students to excitedly whisper to each other as their teacher continues to organize herself.

"Gift exchange..." Marinette mutters to herself as a smile slowly blooms across her face. Thinking to herself, 'thats perfect! If I get Adrien, then I'll have the perfect excuse to give him, his christmas present. Then I'll ask him out, he'll realize he's always loved me, we'll get married, have three kids and a hamster.'

All of a sudden, something pointy pushes into her arm, snapping Marinette out of her thoughts and she turns only to realizes that Alya had elbowed her to get her attention. Looking around, she notices that everyone is starring at her and she blushes in embarrassment.

"Well," Alya whispers, "are you going to go draw a name?"

"Draw a name," Marinette whispers back in confusion and then notices the box that Miss Bustier is now holding. With further inspection she takes in the hole in the top just big enough for someone to put there hand inside and realizes that everyone is waiting for her to go up and draw a name from it.

Laughing nervously, she stands up and nearly trips as she rushes down the steps. Walking over, she quickly reaches in and pulls out a folded piece of paper. She then just as quickly makes it back to her seat. Starring nervously at the paper, Marinette doesn't pay any attention to her classmates as they slowly make their way to receive the name of whom them will be getting a gift for. Instead she focuses on the paper in front of her with a serious look in her eye.

Closing one of her eyes, as if she is scared to see whose name is on the paper, she slowly unfolds it and squeals. And then quickly closes her mouth as everyone in the class turns to look at her in either confusion, annoyance or curiousity. Smiling she sinks down in her seat with embarrassment but no embarrassment is going to ruin her good mood.

As Alya stands up to go draw a name Marinette whispers, "How lucky, I actually got Adrien!"

Perhaps due to her being so focused on her good fortune, Marinette does not notice the pair of green eyes that narrow behind her.

* * *

As things finally settle down, Marinette turns to Alya with the intention of telling her best friend or at the very least showing her the name on the piece of paper but before she has the chance to Miss Bustier calls out her name.

"Marinette."

"Yes?"

"Would you be so kind as to take these papers to Ms. Mendeleiev's. It seems that I accidentally grabbed her worksheets in my rush."

"Of course," Marinette agrees as she stands up and walks over, to take the papers.

* * *

By the time Marinette returns to the classroom, the lesson has already begun and the matter of a gift exchange has been put on hold. From what she had been told by Alya, Miss Bustier had been running a bit behind and so it was decided that at the end of the day everyone would show her who they got in the gift exchange. And so thoughts of gift giving are put aside as the day is filled with lectures on Roman cilivization, reprodution in plants, formula's for the circumference and area of a circle, an overview of current and past forms of transportation and their effects on the envirement. All in all it had been an incredibly boring day with most students sitting at the edge of their seats as they wait to be dismissed.

In Marinette's case, she is no different. Plans of beating her father at the latest video game he has bought fills her head. It's then a bit of a surprise as Miss Bustier reminds everyone of the gift exchange and one by one students walk up to whisper or show who they have gotten.

As Adrien stands up to talk to the teacher, who promptly writes down whoever Adrian will be getting a gift for, Marinette smiles dreamily as her imagination runs wild about what will happen when she gives him, her gift. Holding hands as they stare deeply into each other eyes, Adrien smiling at her as he leans forward to kis...

A sharp nudge once again interrupts her day dream and Marinette looks over to Alya who tells her, "come on girl, you're the only one who hasn't told Miss Bustier who you're getting a gift for."

Chuckling Marinette smiles and says, "right."

Standing up, she begins to walk over to miss Bustier. Along the way she notices Rose, Juleka and Lila talking to each other by the window. For a moment the thought enters Marinette mind, 'so, Lila was in class today? I hadn't even noticed. Usually she draws more attention with all her stories...' As she stares at the girl, Lila meets her gaze and smiles, causing Marinette to frown.

Approaching Miss Bustier, Marinette pushes away any thoughts about Lila and excitedly says, "Hi Miss Bustier!"

"Hello Marinette," The teacher responds with a fond smile, "you seems to be in a good mood."

"I'm just really excited for the gift exchange!" Marinette explains.

"Thats great, I'm happy to hear how much your looking forward to it. This is more a formality since all your classmates have already told me who they're giving a gift to. But whose name did you draw?"

"Of course," Marinette confirms as she shyly twiddle her fingers, trying to get up the nerve to say whose name she received.

Seeing that one of her students is having trouble saying the name, Miss Bustier says, "so, you have...

"Max."

"Adrien"

Teacher and student say at the same time. A few seconds pass by as Miss Bustier starts to write something on her clipboard before both females look at each other in confusion and ask, "huh?"

"You did get Max, didn't you?"

"What? No I got Adrien"

Looking at the list on her clipboard Miss Bustier frowns as she doubles checks. Looking up at Marinette, she says, "But someone else already said they have Adrien?"

"That's not possible?" Marinette says as she becomes slightly flustered, "I know for sure that I drew Adrien name!"

"Do you have the paper with his name on it?"

"Right!" Marinette thinks as she opens her backpack and starts rummaging through it, 'with that I can prove that I got Adrien's name and this is all just one big mistake.' Becoming more frustrated as she is unable to find the piece of paper, Marinette turns out the contents of her bag onto her teachers desk. The paper with Adrien's name falls out, landing on top of the pile. Picking it up Marinette opens it to show the teacher, as she does so she says, "see, right here it says Adrien!"

The paper opens but instead of seeing Adrien name in her teachers handwriting, it instead says Max. Marinette can only stare dumbfounded at the paper.

"No way!" She says in shock, "Miss Bustier, I had Adrien's name! You have to believe me!"

"Well, maybe you just made a mistake," she suggested.

"That's not possible!" Marinette argues, "if I don't have Adrien, who does?!

"I dont think..." Miss Bustier starts to say before she is interrrupted. "Excuse me," an irritating familiar voice says.

"I couldn't help but over hear you talking," Lila says with a soft voice as she cautiously steps forward. "But if your wondering who got Adrien, that would be me."

Lila then brings out a piece of paper with Adrien's name on it. The piece of paper Marinette had this morning.

"Thats mine!" Marinette shouts in surprise and remembers the smile Lila had given her. "You must have stolen it!"

At Marinnttes sudden shout Lila pulls back a bit and gives the blunettte an uneasy expression.

"Marinette!" Miss Bustier scolds as she is concerned for Lila.

Lila gives a trembling smile and says, "I don't really know what's going on. But it seems like you really want to have Adrien for the gift exchange. If you want we can trade. It really isn't that big of a deal. I just want everyone to have fun."

"What!? No way Lila," Rose interject as she looks sadly between the two girls, "we've been brainstorming all day on what you could give Adrien."

"Marinette, that's a little much," Alya says coming up to stand beside her friend. "Just because Lila got Adrien doesn't mean she stole it from you. You probably weren't paying attention and just imagined that you got Adrien."

"What?! No way!" Marinette insist. I have Adrien's name or well, I had it!"

"When," Alya asks, "Lila been asking almost everyone for ideas on what to get Adrien. I'm pretty she started asking people as soon as she pulled out his name."

"But," Marinette tries to argue but stops as Miss Bustier stands up and gives her a disappointed look.

"Marinette, I think you owe Lila an apology."

"What?!"

"You shouldn't accuse Lila of stealing," the teacher explains and then turns to Lila, "It's very kind of you to offer to trade but I think it would be best if you didn't. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some work to do."

As Miss Bustier leaves the classroom, Marinette is dumbfounded and hears Juleka mutters as she tries to reassure Lila, "Don't worry about it Lila. Marinette has always been a little weird when it comes to Adrien."

Clenching her teeth in anger Marinette turns around to give a piece of her mind but is grabbed by her arm and dragged out of the class room.

Looking to Alya, she opens her mouth but is cut short as Alya sighs and says, "girl chill. even I think that was too much."

"But."

"Listen, I get that you feel threatened by Lila. But seriously, she's already said that she isn't interested in Adrien that way."

"And you believe her."

"Yeah, I do"

"Everything she says is a lie!" Marinette shouts.

Rolling her eyes, Alya tries to reason with her friend, "you have Max and she has Adrien. When would she even have the time to switch your papers. Marinette you need to calm down and think about this. Lila is a really nice girl, you just need to get to know her a little better. Anyways, you can still give Adrien a christmas gift."

"But...I...That and this are two totally different things!" She tries to explain but is unable to find the words. It's bad enough that Lila somehow switch their papers but even her best friend doesn't believe her. Even miss Bustier, Rose and Juleka are on Lila side. A Flurry of emotion over takes her and in a huff, Marinette turns on her heels and walks away, ignoring the worried calls from Alya.

She didn't go far, walking into the girls bathroom. Entering the room the wave of anger she felt disapates, leaving behind a stabbing sadness and sense of betrayal. Sniffling Marinette approaches the sink and turns on the faucet. Her purse opens and Tikki peeks out.

"Marinette are you alright?"

"Yeah Tikki."

"You know Alya is right," Tikki says as she tries to reassure her partner. "You can still give Adrien the gift you made."

"I know," Marinette whispers, "but that's not why I'm upset."

"Then why are you upset?"

"Lila lies and steals," Marinette says. "But no matter what happens everyone believes her. The teachers, my friends...even Alya. I know I shouldn't have made such a big deal about it but even so."

Whipping her eyes, she looks down at the running water. As she opens her mouth to continue the door suddenly slams open.

"Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!" The familiar complaint is heard and Marinette quickly closes her purse. Turning to the blue eyed blonde, she sniffles as they stare at each other. But their starring contest ends as Chloe grabs some paper towels and walks over to the sink to wet them. She then begins to dab the obvious blue stain on her shirt.

The silence between them doesn't last long as Chloe mentions, "you now. There are stalls if you need some privacy or you know, if you want to save us from seeing your ugly mug."

Not willing to take Chloe usual insults today, Marinette sends a glare to the blonde and says, "I'm really not in the mood."

"Whats wrong with you?" Chloe asks, "did you finally confess your love for Adrien and get rejected, like everyone expects you will?"

"Chloe..." Marinette grinds out between her teeth.

"Or is it because Lila switched who you got for the gift exchange?"

In shock, she turns to the blonde and asks, "you know?"

Narrowing her eyes, Chloe gives her a look as if saying, 'of course, what do you expect.'

She then smiles as she explains, "with how much of a dork you where acting like, I figured you must have gotten Adrein."

"But then, how did Lila switch are papers?"

"When you left to deliver those papers for Miss Bustier, Lila went to draw her name. On the way back to her seat... she tripped," Chloe rolls her eyes showing how she didn't believe it was an accident. "When she tripped, she knocked your stuff off your desk and then help put it back. I'm guessing she made the switch then."

"Thats great Chloe," Marinette gushes as Chloe gives her a look of disbelief. "That means you can back me up on Lila switching are papers!"

"Um no."

"What? But why?"

"Even if I was inclined to help you, which I'm not." Chloe answers, "There's no way that I'm going to risk my own reputation."

A part of Marinette wants to interject, 'what reputation?' But she bites her tongue.

"If you haven't noticed, Lila is an expert at manipulating people."

"But,"

"Listen, if anyone is stupid enough to take Lila head on, they will lose." Chloe explains, "Lila will just play the victim and turn the tables on them. Judging from your face it looks like you've already experienced that."

"Not particularly liking what Chloe is saying or how right she is, Marinette tries to get the other girl to help her. "But what about Adrien? You must not want Lila to give him a gift? I mean, what if he falls in love with her, they move away and get married!?"

Chuckling Chloe reasons, "Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous! As if Adrien would ever fall in love with a girl like that. Really, you might as well give up. The only way that you even have a hope of defeating Lila, is if she willing admits she switched your papers and lied."

Flipping her hair, Chloe turns around and leaves the restroom. Watching the other girl leave, Marinette mutters, "get her to admit what she's done...hm."

Purse clicking open, Tiki pokes her red head out and asks, "Marinette?"

* * *

A few days later, Marinette is sitting in the AV club room, next to her Max is fiddling away with a speaker.

"I'm a bit surprised that you wanted to hang out?" Max finally breaks the silence.

"Huh, really?" Marinette responds as she toys with a wire. "I mean we might not hang out all the time but we still hangout sometimes."

"Yes, but that usually it involves a new game," Max confirms. "Not when I'm working on a project for the AV club."

"I just thought maybe you could use some company," she reasons.

"Is that so and here I thought you are trying to figure out what I would like for a christmas present?"

Laughing nervously at how right he is, she quickly changes the topic, "so what are you working on?"

"Oh this," Max asks as he gestures to the speakers and wires in front of him. "I'm working on the schools new audio system."

"You mean the one in the principals office?"

"Yeah, we're replacing it after christmas break"

"Oh."

"I'm going to work out all the bugs and set it up before break." Max explains. "Once its set up all you need to use is this remote and microphone and you can control the entire system."

Holding up the remote and pointing at the microphone, Marinette arches her eyebrow in interest.

* * *

Walking up the steps of College Francois Dupont, Marinette sighs and stares at the two gifts in her hand. One for Max and the other for Adrien. Reaching the top of the steps, she notices a familiar brunette with green eyes and frowns.

"Lila," Marinette mutters as she walks over to the other girl. Taking in the star cover sack with a gold ribbin tying it closed in her hands, she scuffs and mutters under her breath.

"Hi Lila," Marinette calls out gaining the other girls attention.

A moment passes before a sickening sweet smile blooms on the other girls face. For a moment, she considers giving up on her plans but just as she is pulling away a low voice asks, "You okay Lila."

Turning to the voice Marinette finds Juleka and Rose heading their way.

"You two arent fighting again," Rose asks, "are you?"

"What of course not," Lila says as Marinette says, "not at all."

"Actually, I just wanted to talk to Lila about what happened before," Marinette says as she slightly fumes about how the other girls must be thinking that she is picking on Lila.

"I hope you still aren't upset with me?"

"No, it's not like that." Marinette insists, "I just... feel so bad about what happened and hoped we could talk about it...alone."

* * *

Probably with the admission of feeling guilty about what happened before, it's easy to get Lila to go to the AV club room with Marinette. As the two girls stand in the small room, one wearing a smile that is quickly turning into a sneer and the other frowning. Marinette wonders not for the first time if this is a good idea.

"So, are you going to say it?"

"Say what?"Marinette asks.

"Oh come on! you can't be that stupid," Lila sneers, "apologize for calling me a liar and saying that I switched the names for the gift exchange."

"But you did."

"Of course I didn't," Lila denied, "how could I have possibly done that? I mean as soon as I got my paper with a name on it, I started asking others for ideas on what to get Adrien for a present."

"Chloe," told me.

"Huh?"

"Chloe told me that you knocked over my stuff on my desk and thats when you switched it."

Chuckling Lila asks, "and what you want a prize or something?"

"No! I want to know why you did it!?"

"Why...because I can. Listen here, because you obviously aren't as smart as you think you are. No matter what you do, no one will believe you. Your teacher, friends and parents, none of them. So you might as well give up on Adrien because you're never going to have him."

"Then you admit it? You switched our papers that had the names of who we where getting gifts for?" As she talked Marinette took a step back and flipped the switch of the microphone behind her.

Laughing Lila admits to all of it, "Thats right! while you where out of the class I bumped into your desk and swapped the papers of who we are getting gifts for! And it couldn't have gone better! You got so upset that now everyone thinks that you've been bullying me! It's hilarious and no matter what you do or say, no will believe you. You might as well give up."

"I'll think about it," Marinette says as she walks over to the door and leaves the room. As she walks over to her classroom she smiles. Her purse then clicks open and Tikki looks wearily at Marrientte, "I really don't think you should have done that Marinette."

"Maybe," Marinette replies as she enters her classroom. As she enters Alya runs up to her and gives her a hug apologizing for not believing her before.

* * *

Throwing her gift on the floor, Lila screams and kicks the wall of the restroom, "I can't believe that nobody actually broadcasted us to the whole school! Just you wait, Marinette! I'll get you for this!"

Feeling something wet slide down her cheek, Lila wipes at it and finds that she is crying. Sighing she kneels on the floor and mutters, "how can I give Adrien his gift now. As she sobs she reaches over to the gift and holds it close. Caught up in her emotional state, Lila is unaware of purplish black butterfly which entering her gift.

Suddenly a voice speaks to Lila,"Gifter, I am Hawkmoth. I am giving you the power to give everyone exactly what they deserve! All I ask in return, is that you retrieve Ladybugs and Chat Noir Miraculous and give them to me!"

Standing up a red smear appears on Lila face and she smiles darkly, "Yes Hawkmoth. I won't fail you!"

* * *

By lunchtime everyone has begun to exchange gifts and Marinette is no different.

"Thanks for the macarons," Max then says, "and I thought you would be the one to give me a gift."

"Can't hide anything from you," Marinette replies.

"Well, you where acting a little weird," Max reasons.

"Hey Marinette," a familiar voice calls out.

Turning around Marinette meets the green eyes of her crush Adrien Agreste. Blushing she stiffly asks, "Hi Adrien, what brings you here... I mean of course you're here, we're in class duh! I mean is there something I can help you with!"

"Actually, I was wondering if we can talk outside?" The young model asks.

Not really thinking about it, Marinette agrees and follows Adrien. As she walks with him to the garden, a million thoughts fly through her head. Question of what does he want? Is he finally going to ask her out? What will he want to name their first child? But as they finally reach the garden she takes notice of the wrapped gift under his arm.

'Oh my gosh! Is that for me!? Did Adrien really get my name!?' Reaching for her backpack Marinette begins to open it to pull out her gift for Adrien. 'I can't believe we're actually going to exchange gifts! it's so romantic! Like an aniversery!'

As the young teens come to stop, Adrien turns to Marinette and says, "I think you where a little too harsh on Lila..."

"What!?" Marinette shouts in surprise.

"I mean, I know what she did wasn't right." Adrien tries to explain, "she was trying to get a rise out of you to make you look bad, but I mean... I just feel sort of bad for her."

"You feel bad for her?" She repeated unable to believe what she is hearing.

"It's just that, Lila doesn't come to school often. And I sort of think all the lying that she does is her way to get attention and make friends."

Frowning, Marintte couldn't help but agree with Adrien, she did feel somewhat bad for Lila. And while she will never want to be friends with the girl, she also can't help but think that Lila must be lonely.

"So I was thinking..." Adrien then reaches out and takes Marinette hand, "maybe we could talk to her."

Meanwhile Marinette's brain was short circuting, 'holding my hand, holding my hand...He's holding my hand!'

"Of course!" Marinette agrees as she chuckles nervously.

"Also I wanted..." he starts to say but is cut off as an explosion is heard from the school building. A series of screams soon follow and for a moment both teens freeze.

"I need to..." They both say at the same time as they try to make up an excuse to go transform. When suddenly a present drops from the sky, then suddenly the gift expands and explodes. The explosion sends both Marinette and Adrien stumbling backwards.

"There you are!" A voice calls out and as a young female Akumazided human appears in front of them. Wearing a skin tight red and green jumpsuit and a red santa hat, she opens her green lipstick clad mouth to say, "hello Marinette. I happen to have a very special gift for you!"

"Lila!? Is that you!?" Marinette asks in shock.

"Not anymore! I'm the Gifter now!" Lifting up the bag she is holding, she opens it and several packages falls out. As they fall, they open and sheets of fabric spring fourth, wrapping themselves around Marinette.

"Hey! Wait a second!" Marinette says as she panics.

'Oh, no!" The girl thinks, 'I can't transform like this! Not with an akumatized Lila and Adrien right here.'

Suddenly there's a loud thud sound and a shriek of surprise, turning to look at what happened. Marinette notices the wrapped present on the ground and the Gifter holding the side of her head.

"Leave her alone!" Adrien yells.

"You!"

'He's trying to save me!' Marinette gushes and then mutters, "oh no." As the Gifter pulls out a present from her bag and tosses it towards Adrien and it explodes.

Looking at Marinette and the Gifter, Adrien nods his head and runs towards Marinette. Instead of trying to rip off the sheets of fabric, he lifts her over his shoulder and runs.

"Wait a second! I'm too heavy!" Marinette panics as she would rather Adrien get away by himself instead of getting caught because of her.

"No problem! Adrien reassures, "I work out."

But the truth is that carrying someone is no easy task and it would be only a matter of time before the Gifter catches them. Knowing this, Adrien makes a sharp turn into an open classroom and closes the door behind him. in the process he drops Marinette whom mutters as she hits the ground

"Sorry about that," he apologizes.

"it's fine," Marinette reassures and hears Adrien rummaging through the teachers desk. Soon, Adrien returns to her. She feels him pulling at the fabric and the sound of scissors cutting cloth, it's not long before she is free. Standing up on her own, the two of them say nothing as someone footsteps echo outside the room. Staying silent they wait until the footsteps pass. Letting out a sigh of relief both teens look at each other.

Suddenly Adrien speaks up, "I'll draw her attention, you escape."

"I cant do that!" Marinette says in horror.

"Listen, I know I can out run her!" Adrien reassures, "besides I'm sure that Ladybug will be here any minute!"

"But..." Marinette tries to argue and is ignored as Adrien rushes out the door.

Muttering under her breath, Marinette takes a deep breath and opens her purse letting Tikki out.

"Tikki, spots on!" she yells. In a few moments Marinette has transformed into superhero Ladybug!

Opening the door she heads in the direction that Adrien had gone in.

The sound of several explosion quickly leads her to the young model and villain.

Using her yo-yo she grabs the present out of the Gifter hands and swings it around. Throwing it back at the villain where it promptly explodes. As the villain is thrown back due to the force of the explosion, a slightly disheveled Adrien happily shouts out, "Ladybug!"

"You!" Marinette shouts, as she points to Adrien, "get away from here!"

Nodding his head, Adrien makes his escape.

Swinging her yo-yo around she yells, "lucky charm!" and a black pokka doted fishing rod falls into her hand.

Letting out a sigh Marinette says, "well, it's not the strangest object I've ever gotten. "

Suddenly a package is flung at her, luckily she dodges and a explosion goes off behind her. Realizing there is no room to fight in the school, Marinette runs out of the classroom. Running through the school, the Gifter follows her outside. As the akumatized Lila leaves the school a black clad young man appears out of nowhere it and kicks the Gifter with enough forces to send her tumbling into some bushes.

Striking a pose, the blonde haired young man winks his green eyes at Ladybug, "Paw-don me my lady but it seems like you are in need of a paw."

"Enough with the puns Chat Noir, we need to stop the Gifter!" Marinette scolds.

"Don't worry my lady, you can count on meeeee!"

Suddenly fabric came flying out of the bushes and wraps around Chat Noir, binding him. The fabric is then pulled forward and the Gifter steps out of the bushes. Opening her sack wide, Chat Noir disappears inside.

"Chat!" Ladybug cries.

The Gifter smirks as she mocks, "one down! One to go!"

Jumping away Ladybug just dodges a volley of exploding packages.

Looking around, she tries to find out where or how she is suppose to use her lucky charm.

"No, no, no! I wish this thing came with an instruction manual!" Suddenly Marinette sees a flash of red and realizes what she must do.

Jumping up on top of the neighboring building she turns to wave her hand to get the Gifter to follow her. With the Gifters attention, Ladybug makes a run for it weaving around buildings. As she drops down to one of the building, the villain follows her. But as the Gifter lands she finds herself unable to locate the hero.

"What's wrong Gifter, can't you see me?" A voice calls out, "I'm over hear!"

"Do you really think that will work on me?" The Gifter shouts as she opens her sack. Suddenly a fishing line swings out, snagging the sack and forcing it to face the Gifter. Several presents leapt out of the bag and explode in the Gifter face. The force of the explosion knocks her back and she loses her grip on the bag. The fishing line which is still attached to the bag is pulled and the sack is reeled in, to Ladybug. Grabbing the bag, Ladybug rips it in half. Allowing for a purplish-black butterfly to be freed.

Touching her yo-yo, it splits in half. "No more evil doing for you little akuma," Ladybug says as she swings her yo-yo around, "time to de-evilize." The akuma is captured and trapped inside the yo-yo. "Gotcha," Ladybug shouts as she presses on her yo-yo to open it to allow a white butterfly to be released and says, "bye bye little butterfly." Shouting, "miraculous Ladybug," a stream of red petals wash over paris fixing and returning everything to normal.

As they washed over the Gifter, Lila takes her place and from where the remains of the Gifters bag, stands Chat Noir.

"So, did I miss anything."

"Nothing much," Ladybug assures, "though it looks as if I've let the cat out of the bag."

* * *

Picking up her backpack to head home, Marinette lets out a sigh as she looks over to the people that surround Lila. At first she had honestly been worried that everyone would be upset with Lila when they learnt that she had been lying to them. But the truth is that everyone seems to have gotten over it and are more than willing to forgive the green eye brunette.

"I'm happy that everything worked out in the end," someone says to her right.

"Yeah, I guess," Marinette agrees, "I just wish they would acknowledge how much trouble she's caused."

Turning to look at who she's been talking to, she jumps back as she meets the green eyes of Adrien.

"Adrien! what are you doing here?!"

"Oh, um..." Adrien nervously says, "well i never got a chance to give you, your gift..."

Handing her a familiar wrapped gift, she stares dumbly at it until he asks, "well are you going to open it?"

In moments the the gift is unwrapped and Marinette is left holding a leather bound sketchbook and drawing pencils.

"I know that you like designing, so i thought... I hope you like it?"

"I love it," Marinette says and then reaches into her bag to pull out a gift for Adrien, "this is for you!"

Taking the gift, Adrien opens it to reveal a pair of gloves, "Oh wow glove! And look they match my scarf! Thanks Marrientte!"

"No thank you!"


End file.
